The present invention relates generally to financial transaction systems and methodologies, and in particular to methods and systems for making payments and consummating staged transactions based on a consumer or transaction identification.
A wide variety of payment methods are available to consumers of goods and services. In addition to currency, consumers are often able to use their credit in making purchases. A common system for making credit purchases involves the use of a credit card provided by a credit card issuer, such as a commercial bank or other financial institution. Non-credit transactions can be handled by debit cards, which utilize funds already deposited by the consumer for payment purposes.
Many types of payment methodologies are dependent upon consumers having relationships with financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, etc. However, a substantial percentage of consumers do not use such conventional financial institutions. These consumers are often referred to as “unbanked” because they do not maintain accounts with such institutions. Unbanked consumers are often inconvenienced in making financial transactions. For example, without bank accounts, they experience difficulty and inconvenience in obtaining negotiable instruments, making purchases on credit, etc.
Other consumers may not feel comfortable providing or sending personal information, such as credit card numbers, over the telephone or internet. Such consumers may desire an alternative method of rendering payment. Still other consumers may have had an attempted payment denied, such as by attempting to render payment using a credit card that is at or over the maximum limit available to the consumer, or the like. To assist consumers in these situations, as well as others, an alternative payment scheme(s) may be desired.
Recently there have been a variety of new products which provide at least partial solutions to the problems of the unbanked and other consumers. For example, “prepay” cards allow consumers to pre-purchase various goods and services. An important example relates to the use of telecommunications services, which are available through prepaid “calling cards.” Many consumers prepay on a monthly basis for “dial tone” service. Prepaid cards can also be reloadable whereby additional value can be added by consumers for using their cards indefinitely. Another system involves the use of a service provider making payments on behalf of consumers over the Internet global computer network or by negotiable instrument. While these solutions address some of the needs of the unbanked, there remain other needs that have not been addressed.
In addition, consumers desiring to purchase digital content via their wireless telephones must make such purchases through the service provider for the telephone service. As a result, the consumer is typically charged a rather substantial fee by the service provider. For example, the fee can total as much as thirty percent in some instances for purchase of a ring tone. Purchases conducted through the telephone service provider also introduce a substantial time delay as to when the content merchant gets paid. Essentially, the consumer is charged for the purchase on the telephone service provider's monthly statement. Then, the consumer has some time period to pay the bill. So, in some instances the merchant must wait six weeks to receive payment for the purchased content.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for solutions to address problems incurred by the unbanked and other consumers. Hence, among a number of other advantages apparent from the following description, the present invention provides systems and methods for addressing such problems.